AFG vs SL

Key features –

1. Dimuth Karunaratne, Kusal Perera and Lahiru Thirimanne gave an amazing start even in the overcast conditions which could’ve helped the seamers and scored 133 runs out of the 201 runs which they put up on the board.

2. The middle order collapse by Mohammad Nabi who bowled a spell of 4/30(9) was the reason for Sri Lanka to post a lower total than what would’ve been expected after the start provided which gave Afghanistan the edge in the D/L score, but couldn’t capitalize on it.

3. Kusal Perera’s knock of 78(81) was a crucial one in this rain interrupted match and saved his wicket even during the collapse of the middle order.

4. The post rain conditions suited the Sri Lankan team which played with 5 specialist seamers all proving their worth and picking up wickets at regular intervals building pressure continuously on the Afghan batsmen.

Post-Match Analysis –

1. As predicted, it was a tough contest between both teams having equal chances of winning and Afghanistan played the Sri Lankan bowling attack really well even though they lost Shahzad, Rahmat and Zazai within the powerplay overs, but Sri Lanka emerged victorious.

2. Afghanistan’s middle order is getting stronger with Nabi, Naib and Najibullah all in decent form, but couldn’t win today unfortunately.

3. Sri Lankan team could’ve posted a huge total but gave away wickets to Nabi without playing according to the pitch like what Kusal did, but managed to win fortunately.

4. Sri Lanka play their next against Pakistan who just defeated the hosts and both come with a win and a loss each, and on the other hand, Afghanistan play against New Zealand who won their first match by 10 wickets against SL and hence both of them not being the favourites in their next match.

5. Nuwan Pradeep was the perfect call by SL since he has great records on this pitch and was perfect for the conditions after the rain. He proved to be worth it as well with a spell of 4/28(8).

6. Thisara Perera and Angelo Matthews are capable of huge scores and they haven’t been playing any good in the last two matches and hence need to strengthen their batting for the upcoming matches if they want any wins and do any upsets.

Up Next tomorrow –

A double header –

First, India take on the Proteas. And second, the Underdogs take on the Kiwis…

India will be playing their first match of this World cup whereas South Africa is still looking for a win after two consecutive losses against England and Bangladesh. Both teams would wanna start their winning ways and hence would be a tough contest.

The Indian top order hasn’t performed well against Left-Handed seamers and Beauran Hendricks has been brought in replacing Dale Steyn who’s injured, which will be a task for Rohit, Shikhar and Virat up the order in the Overcast conditions. On the other hand, Bhuvneshwar Kumar is excellent with the ball in such weather conditions and swings the ball both ways in England wickets and hence could cause problem for the top order of South Africa. Hence, it will be a contest worth watching.

On the other hand, Bangladesh are coming with a win against South Africa. Whereas, New Zealand also is coming off a comfortable win against Sri Lanka by 10 wickets. Kiwi bowlers were a terror against both the Asian teams, India and Sri Lanka getting them all out for 179 (in the warm-up) and 135 respectively. And again they take on an Asian team tomorrow who posted their highest ODI total of 330 against a strong South African bowling attack. Hence, this will also be a contest worth watching.

A strong double header up ahead tomorrow for all the Cricket fans out there!